First Ripe Tomatoes In Gardens

[missionrandy]

Hello Everyone,

Just wondering which varieties are producing the first ripe tomatoes in your gardens???

Currently we have a bunch of Stupice vine ripened, with Aurora Siberian just starting to turn color. Fish Lake Oxheart, Russian Rose and Mano are a week away from producing ripe tomatoes. My Black from Tula, Himilayian, Bulgarian #7, Debaro Pink and Brown Berry are still a few weeks away!

Hope to hear from growers in different areas of the globe...


Thanks,
Randy
Fraser Valley, BC
Canada
Zone 7

[squibT]

I have 10 Health Kick on one plant 2 or 3 starting to turn...6 Supersonic on one plant....still green and growing, Stupice, Gallina, Sugary, Gardeners Delight and ML still green and growing....only just started to get some nice sunny weather.

squibT

[TomatoDon]

Hi all. Here's my quick report.

The All Star of the year are the 12 Brandywine Sudduths. I am very surprised they have done so well in this climate, but they are the best of the batch. Thriving, healthy plants, lots of fruit, just doing great. I'm starting to get more and more delicious fruit. The other All Star is Mortgage Lifter, another surprise. I planted two, one made it, and it is just a super plant with lots of nice fruit. Took some to Cracker Barrel the other day and had the "chef" slice one with my meal and the size and flavor drew quite a stir.

The Earl's and NAR's are coming on, and Earl's is the top there. They are behind in ripe fruit, but have plenty of it, although the NAR seems it might have smaller fruit. These are two that are still high on the list.

The Carbons, Cherokee Purples, and Paul Robesons are doing fine, just not a true abundance of fruit. Plants are fine, some fruit getting ready, but these aren't prolific. A few ripe already.

The one Black Krim didn't make it. Aunt Ruby's German Green is so-so at this point. The one Aker's is late but growing fine. The Big Beef and Better Boys are about a "C+" this year. They are fine, just not super stars. Lots of fruit ready and getting ready. Not large though. Not producing real heavy, but will have plenty to eat for a while.

The disappointments are Marianna's Peace, Box Car Willie, Stump of the World, Chapman's, and Red Rose. Just haven't done much. Plants are fine, but just not much fruit at all, barely any on some plants, and what there is is small. Two of the three Chapman's didn't make it, the other is puny. I tried 3 Porterhouse and they just haven't done much either. I doubt I'll try any of these next year. But this is just my garden, in this climate, so all of these may do fine for you.

My top four are Brandywine Sudduth, Mortgage Lifter, and am waiting on NAR and Earl's to get ripe. A couple of Earl's were ripe and at the bottom and after the recent rain they split and spoiled before I saw them, so I haven't tasted one yet. Big Beef and Better Boy are in the top six. I think I counted 26 total of the others I could have left out. Eventually most all of them will have something, but the real producers are getting my attention.

Overall the patch is doing fine. Great looking plants. I did have a few seedlings that just didn't make it and replaced with ones that are way behind. Wish I had added Zogola and Omar's early but just didn't have room. Chapman is the main disappointment, and I'd have to add Marianna's Peace, Box Car Willie, and Porterhouse to that. But you should see those BW Sudduths and the Mortgage Lifter!

I'll be doing some taste tests and pictures this week to post here. For some reason some of mine seem a little late this year, but am on the verge of having a lot of ripe tomatoes.

Gee, I hope I have em labeled right! (Thank goodness I made a chart of the patch--lots of the labels got lost in the shuffle again. I have it all on paper and the computer though. And the contractor paper mulch is working fine. Haven't done any weeding so far other than an occassional stray weed here and there. More pix soon!)

Don

[jcmorse33]

So far I have harvested several pints of Sungold and Sweet Baby Girl cherry tomatoes, a couple of Husky Gold tomatoes, one Super Bush, and a Lemon Boy. Big Beef has several that should be ripe within a few days to join the other slicers that I am harvesting from now. I am still waiting on Kellog's Breakfast and Pruden's Purple.

The Sungold are of course, great. Sweet Baby Girls have been suprisingly good, perhaps even a bit sweeter than the Sungold though with less of that "tomato tang." Mixed reviews on the Husky Gold thus far... the first fruit was bland and watery, but the second one was suprisingly good (mind you, this is based on the taste scale of someone who has never grown anything besides Big Beef before) and made a nice mixed color brushetta with the Super Bush and some fresh basil that also came out of the garden.

Can't wait til I get to harvest a few of those KB and PP monsters through...


--Justin

[akgardengirl]

Looks like the "Dubok" will have the 1st ripe tomato. Early Siberian and Aurora have some greenies going. All seem to be lagging behind this year despite an early start indoors. The weather has been cooler most days with only a handful of sunny ones scattered in between. Most of the plants only have blossoms and not too many of those!
Sue

[Andrey_BY]

Morkovnyi (Carrot-like), Shchyolkovskiy Ranniy (Early from Shchelkovo), Spiridonovskiy, Juhas, Oranzhevyi Gigant (Orange Giant) and Chyornyi Slon (Black Elephant) are my leaders so far...
Kumato F2 and Haduk Nagdok are the laziest in my greenhouses...

[BigdaddyJ]

Only ripe Sungold's here so far but I am a mere days away from the big guys. I didn't grow any early varieties this year. Here in Delaware we are a bit ahead of last year regarding first ripe. It's been a great season weather wise for us.

[Adenn1]

Azoychka was the first one to the finish line...followed closely by some Sweet Million cherry tomatoes. On the 4th of July my elderly neighbor picked his first ripe one--a nice six ounce Sioux. First time he has ever had a tomato by the holiday in his fifty plus years of growing tomatoes. Other neighbors have picked a few Silvery Fir Tree toms.

We have had a pretty good growing season...so I think this really helped these accomplishments.

[happyscientist]

Yesterday I picked my first sunsugar. It looks like it will be a couple days before any more are ready. It will be a few weeks until I get any full sized tomatoes. The first one is always the most exciting! I proudly brought it into the house to show my husband. He doesn't eat tomatoes and just doesn't understand. The middle dog in the picture loves tomatoes, though, and he jealously watched as I ate the first tomato.

[QAGuy]

Naturally, the cherry (Sweet 100) was the first to ripen, followed quickly by Early Girl and Lemon Boy.

The rest are following along quite quickly now.

[dgriff]

Well besides some of the Jelly Bean which were ripe weeks ago. just picked my first Black Krim's of the year.

[ddsack]

Stupice, of course. Have eaten two so far, and three more will be picked in a day or two. (From two plants.) Then there are the MicroToms, but I don't bother eating them, just grow them as ornamentals here and there. It's odd, you'd think as tiny as those plants are (4"-6") they would be first, but the Stupice beat them out by over a week.

[tjg911]

picked the 1st sun golds on 7/7. the 1st was horrid! mushy and not the least bit tastey but the 1st sun golds are often not that good if it's really early and this is really early.

i picked some monday and ate them last night. they were slight under ripe but good a bit tangy, i normally like them dead ripe.

tom

[lightt]

I picked a Novikov's Giant last week and this evening got 2 CP's and a Brandy Boy.

Terry Light
Oak Hill, Virginia

[dgriff]

Nice harvest this afternoon before the rains.

Black Krim
Orange Valencia
Red calabash
San Marzano
Jelly Bean

Have a bunch more ready to pick next week. Need to think of succesive planting next year. too many at one time. tons of the San Marzano and should be ready to can in 2 weeks.